Romans 5:12-14

¹² “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned—¹³ for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not counted against anyone when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

Paul is making a startling claim here. We may be tempted to think that we only became sinners when we sinned the first time, but this is simply not true: We were sinners at birth. We became sinners through Adam’s sin. This means that humanity ultimately has a birth problem. We are born one way, in Adam, and we need to be born again in Christ. This reality is shown to us by the law. Sin existed prior to the law but the law demonstrated the depth of our sins.